There are Now One Million Child Refugees from Syria and They Need Our Help

In the same week that a chemical weapon attack in Damascus has led to heightened pressure on the Unite States and other Western powers to use military intervention, the United Nations says that the number of children forced to flee from Syria has now reached one million. Within Syria itself, two million more children have been displaced as a result of the civil war that is now in its third year. Of the estimated 100,000 people who have been killed, about 7,000 have been children. Many of the victims in the August 21 chemical weapons attack in eastern Damascus were children. The total number of refugees from Syria is estimated to be nearing two million; the U.N. says that the Syrian refugee crisis is the worst since the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. About half the refugees are children, three-quarters of whom — about 740,000 — are under the age of 11. Most end up in Lebanon, Jor...